96 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Vrodela, and it is in its first division, the Mecodonta, that we 

 find, among numerous other genera, the genus Salamandra. 



Salamanders are found distributed very generally over nearly 

 the whole of Europe, especially the central and southern parts, 

 and they occur also in Syria and in Algiers. Great Britain, or 

 the British Isles, lacks them entirely, nor are the salamanders 

 found in the fauna of the United States. These truly harmless 

 little creatures secrete themselves under the debris of the forest, 

 in damp and shady localities, where they feed upon numerous 

 kinds of insects and worms. They are viviparous, the thirty or 

 forty eggs of the female parent developing in the oviducts at one 

 time, and the young when born being deposited in sluggish, 

 stagnant water, where they live and grow for some time. To the 

 biologisl the development of the young of the salamander offers 

 a chapter in science of great interest and importance, as they 

 ]>ass through a series of stages, or a metamorphosis of a very in- 

 structive nature. Neither physiologically nor structurally are 

 they fin- some time as high in the animal scale as the parent ani- 

 mals. In other words, among other things, they possess external 

 feather-like gills, and consequently are comparable with the 

 adults of a group of creatures lower in the scale of creation than 

 Salamandra — I refer to the Perenniiranchiata. 



I have said that we have no true salamanders in the United 

 States, but what we do have, are a number of genera of amphib- 

 ians, the representatives of which are more or less nearly allied 

 to Salamandra, and of these genera, the genus Amblystoma is 

 especially rich in forms, being variously distributed all over the 

 country. 



Some naturalists have fallen into the habit of calling them 

 salamanders, and in reality in external appearance one of our 

 American " Elfs " or amblystomas closely resembles a conti- 

 nental salamander. Like the latter, the young pass through a 

 "tadpole stage," and a " perennibranchiatal stage," before as- 

 suming the adult form. In the latter condition they live in the 

 fresh-water pools, have four limbs, and breathe by gill-slits, that 

 possess feather-like external gills. To better appreciate the ap- 

 pearance of the adult of one of these creatures, I submit here a 

 drawing of our " tiger salamander" (Amblystoma tigrinum ), made 

 from a photograph that I succeeded in obtaining in New Mexico. 

 During the aquatic existence of one of these amblystomas they 

 are known in Mexico and Southwestern United States as the 



